The standard idea for social media presence amongst sports teams is to just offer updates and prizes to fans. This gets boring fast, and doesn't truly inspire a follow/ mention/ or #hashtag all the time.
My recommendation for the new CFL Ottawa team (and Jeff Hunt) is to follow along the guidelines of the Toronto Bluejays, UFC, and the LA Kings. Here are the reasons why for each:
1) Toronto Blue Jays- Offered the coolest prize on twitter... they tweeted asking for anyone going to the game to RT ("retweet" for all you non twitter users) their last tweet along with their row and seat number that they would be sitting in. All people who did this were entered into a draw to throw out the first pitch of the baseball game. Now I know football is a lot different than baseball, however something could be done as cool as this! Perhaps a fan could get to toss the coin to begin the game, or bring the game ball to the kick off team. Something along those lines would really engage people and make lifelong fans fast!
2) UFC (and President Dana White)- Offers great content to people who follow/watch him. Providing fans with exclusive video, pictures, and prizes. Not only that, they air official preliminary fights through their facebook page (and you can watch them during UFC's fightcard live) once you give them a simple "like". Now posting live video and such of live CFL games maybe hard due to TSN's exclusive television rights. Posting the normal videos, like after practice, pre-game, and post game should not be an issue though. To go a step further maybe Ottawa could allow live coverage of their team taking part in pre-game warmups.
3) LA Kings- During their Stanley Cup Playoff run they took the standard guidelines for sports teams in social media and threw it in the garbage. They offered comical posts and engaged with other popular people in the media for all to see (Like Rainn Wilson of the Office). This got people talking, and with more people talking... even more buzz was created. I used to follow only one NHL team (The Jets- my fav NHL team because their AHL affiliate is in my home of St. John's), but once I heard what the Kings were doing I had to look into it! The Kings' accounts had personality and flair, something that practically all sports teams now don't have. They took risks, and yes some people didn't like it, but the fans did!
So to sum it up here's what I hope to see Ottawa's new CFL team do with social media. Provide exclusive content to fans that they cannot find anywhere else other than the team's social media accounts. I would like them to embrace a personality. Get the fans engaged and talking about the team online... and have this lead into prize winning experiences. The personality cannot be afraid to take risk and mock opposing CFL teams (like the despised Argos, Als, and TiCats). Although I have mentioned this earlier, the team's social media strategy should fit snuggly within the overall marketing strategy of the organization. Businesses who attempt to be savvy with social media often forget this point, and ultimately its voice gets confused to the user. The team should also try its best to get back to its fans online. Getting a reply back means a lot to the user! At the end of the year Ottawa's management team could even perhaps gather the top 10-100 posts/tweets of the year!
Ottawa has some VERY passionate CFL fans out there! What better way to reach them through a online tool that practically costs nothing to start up aside from proper knowledge. Here's to hoping their social media presence they decide to go with a unique tone with tons of cool features to keep fans excited!
